China, Russia, and Germany are heavily invested in Iran for their oil. The USA could never make an offensive move without upsetting three of the most powerful governments in the world.
The U.S. for the first time formally accused Iran of forging an alliance with al Qaeda in a pact that allows the terrorist group to use Iranian soil as a transit point for moving money, arms and fighters to its bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Treasury Department outlined on Thursday what it said was an extensive fund-raising operation that uses Iran-based operatives and draws from donors in oil-rich Persian Gulf countries such as Kuwait and Qatar. The Treasury said it had sanctioned six al Qaeda members for allegedly overseeing this network.
The U.S. has long been concerned about alleged Iranian support for the terrorist group, though Iran and al Qaeda hold differing interpretations of Islam and divergent strategic interests.
But Tehran, anticipating the U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, has been moving increasingly to assert its regional influence. Iran has helped smuggle sophisticated weapons into those countries to hasten the withdrawal of American forces, the U.S. says—a charge Tehran has denied.
U.S. officials said on Thursday that they believe Iranian assistance to al Qaeda is driven by the same motivation: ridding the Middle East and Central Asia of U.S. forces. “The Iranians are allowing their territory to be used by this network…I think it stands to reason that Iran is getting something out of this as well,” said a senior U.S. official.
Officials at the Iranian mission in New York called the allegations “totally baseless.” Alireza Miryousefi, the mission’s spokesman, said “the Islamic Republic of Iran itself has been a victim of acts of terrorism in the past which have resulted in the loss of hundreds of innocent Iranian lives.”
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